One of the highlights of the White House Radio and Television Correspondents’ Association Dinner was John Hodgman‘s speech about how Barack Obama might be the first nerd/geek President of the United States. Many of you should recognize Hodgman as the PC guy on the Apple commercials, or as a sometimes Daily Show correspondent, but he is also a best selling author and sometimes actor. The speech is great because it features a bevy of geek references, including Star Trek, Superman, Conan, Dune and more. You can watch Hodgman’s entire 14-minute speech after the jump.Read More »

Please Recommend /Film on Facebook

Over the last couple weeks there have been a bunch of articlescomparing U.S. President Barack Obama to the Star Trek character Spock. I remember reading once that Obama was a Trekkie, and have wondered if Obama had seen Trek yet, and if so, what he thought. Obama screened JJ Abrams’ new Star Trek reboot over the weekend, and it turns out that he liked it.

The Zombama: Brains T-shirt is now available for the next 24-hours only on TeeFury.com for only $9 (plus $2 shipping and handling. The design by Jared Moratis created the art as a commentary about rabid Obama fan-mania coupled with his missteps as a new leader, as well as a commentary about appropriation art. The artist assures us that while some may assign “sort of racist, hate-filled vibe to it”, that was not his intention at all. It’s also worth noting that the design is not a photo-manipulation of the famous Obama piece, though it’s obviously based on it — it’s completely hand-drawn from scratch, then rendered in Illustrator.

U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown recently visited the United States, where he spent some quality time with President Barack Obama. As is usual in such visits, the two of them exchanged gifts. Brown’s gift to Obama? A pen holder made from wood from the anti-slave ship HMS Gannet. The gift was both classy and priceless, showing an understanding of the significance of Obama’s ascendence to the presidency. Obama’s gift to Brown? A set of 25 DVDs.Read More »

The journalism from political campaigns that fascinates me the most isn’t actually what makes it to the media before the election; it’s the exhaustive and fascinating stories that are spun in excruciating detail by journalists after the fact. In the past, writers have embedded themselves deep within politicians’ inner circles, capturing key moments, setbacks, and victories, all under the condition that none of it sees the light of day until after the election. We’ve now learned that a group of filmmakers did exactly that with the Barack Obama campaign, and that HBO has picked up the rights for the movie they are making.

According to the Hollywood Reporter and Variety, Edward Norton’s production company, Class 5 Films, approached Barack Obama two and a half years ago with a proposal to document the events of his campaign. Obama agreed, and the filmmakers were given extensive access to the candidate, his staff, his family, and associates. With Obama’s victory, interest for the project has skyrocketed and HBO has now closed a seven-figure deal for U.S. rights to the film. The film was directed by Amy Rice and Alicia Sams and is being edited by Sam Pollard, who worked on Spike Lee’s masterful When the Levees Broke. In fact, footage is still being captured, and filmmaking will continue through the inauguration.

As a documentary nut and political junkie, I am unbelievably excited about this. If done with even a nominal degree of proficiency, the film promises to show us a fascinating side of the election we never got the chance to see. It is scheduled to premiere in 2009.